FEATURED POSTS
  • Tracking Time Spent on Each Wedding | Wedding Pros, You Should Know

    Tracking Time Spent on Each Wedding | Wedding Pros, You Should Know

    During the course of several of our Outstanding Wedding Planner Mentorships, our clients have gotten stuck on how to price their services.  We will talk about pricing your services next week, but this week we want to talk about your TIME.  Do you know how much time you spend ...

    Read More

  • How We Use Basecamp for Our Wedding Business | Project Management

    How We Use Basecamp for Our Wedding Business | Project Management

    One of the questions we receive a lot about our business is "How do you manage your clients?"  We actually do not use a wedding planning software to manage our clients (although we believe that My Wedding Workbook Pro is probably the best one out there and a lot of ...

    Read More

  • Creating an Experience | Melissa Jill Photography

    Creating an Experience | Melissa Jill Photography

    Two things that we strive to do as a company:  create Outstanding experiences and build Outstanding relationships.   It is more than about the wedding or event day. It begins before the client even becomes an actual client. It starts with the first interaction that a client has ...

    Read More

  • It’s Our Client Too | Wedding Pros Working Together as a Team

    It's Our Client Too | Wedding Pros Working Together as a Team

      When a client hires you, remember that they are not just YOUR wedding client, but they are also a client of a photographer, stationery designer, venue, etc. We need to all work as a team. Don't forget that we are all trying to give the wedding couple an ...

    Read More

  • Thank You | How Often Do You Say This to Event Pros and Clients?

    Thank You | How Often Do You Say This to Event Pros and Clients?

    Thank you...two simple words that are not used enough. In the spirit of this Thanksgiving month, we wanted to remind you to give thanks to the wonderful event pros that you work with and to the amazing clients that keep you in business. Say THANK YOU to the professionals that ...

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  • Is Your Marketing Collateral Cohesive?

    Take the time to review your marketing collateral (both online and in print) to make sure it is cohesive.  So many times I see a company's website and then go to their blog to find out they don't relate at all.  Then, I see their business card that gives me ...

    Read More

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Always Continue to Educate Yourself and Your Team

by Heather at Outstanding Occasions on September 7, 2011

Education, education, education!  We all need to continue to learn more about our craft and our business.  If you stop learning, you might as well close up shop!  While we are working behind the scenes on some new ways to educate you and enhancing our mentorship program and blog, we thought we would do a little recap of some popular posts and tell you about an amazing opportunity for wedding professionals across the nation.

Check out these popular articles:

Also, if you haven’t yet, hop over to our Wedding Planner Resources page to find other amazing blogs that will help your business.

And have you heard about the new workshop, Law School for Wedding Pros, created by Katy Carrier?

Law School for Wedding Professionals is a full day of education designed to help you understand and implement policies, practices and protections for your business. The workshop, led by attorney Katy Carrier, covers topics such as selecting the proper business entity, contracts, insurance, protecting your intellectual property and legal issues in social media, and also includes practical, hands-on training, such as step-by-step instruction on filing copyright registrations, preparing cease and desist letters and filing copyright infringement takedown notices. Your one-day law school admission also includes a custom, attorney-drafted client contract, to be completed within 14 days of your attendance date. Your new contract includes one-on-one attorney counseling and drafting specific to your business’s unique needs.

The workshop will be in Phoenix on October 26th.  Make sure you mark down the date and times and register now.  Katy will be visiting 12 different cities, so if you are not in Phoenix, check to see which city would be closest to you!

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Tracking Time Spent on Each Wedding | Wedding Pros, You Should Know

by Heather at Outstanding Occasions on August 3, 2011

During the course of several of our Outstanding Wedding Planner Mentorships, our clients have gotten stuck on how to price their services.  We will talk about pricing your services next week, but this week we want to talk about your TIME. 

Do you know how much time you spend on average per wedding? If you say no to this question, you need to finish reading this post and then start tracking your time now.  I can hear some of you grunting and saying already “Track my time every day for each different wedding or event…you must be crazy!  I don’t have time for that!”  (Believe me, I know how you feel!  I came from the legal profession and we had to account for every minute and fill out our billing sheets.  I hated it!)

wedding planners need to track their time

Image by RHiNO NEAL

 

Well, unless you bill by the hour, you don’t need to track your time for every wedding, but in order to know how much time you spend on your weddings or events on average, you need to at least track time for a few different events.  If you provide different “packages” (even though we hate them…that is for another blog post also) or provide different services for a few weddings, you should keep track of all of them to see how much time is spent on each separate one.  Knowing how much time you spend on your events will be the first step for figuring out what you should really be charging.  When our mentorship clients have done this and came up with a total number of hours per wedding and then divided that by the amount they charge, most were flabbergasted!  Some clients were getting less than minimum wage per hour.  It was a huge eye opener for several clients and it might be for you too!

So, in order track your hours, we suggest to either use a spreadsheet or you can use an online tracking system if digital tracking is more your style.  If you prefer to keep a spreadsheet, include the task involved, the date you started and the date you finished, the amount of time spent each time you worked on anything for that client and then a box at the bottom for the total amount of time for that sheet.

If you want to learn about a few tools for tracking time, check out this post over at Sage Wedding Pros. (And if you are not following their blog, start now!  Michelle and Kelly are super smart ladies that share great information about the business side of weddings and events too :)

Have you tracked your time before?  Were you surprised by how much time you spent on each event?  What have you found to be the best method to track your time?

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Virtual Phone Service for Wedding Professionals

by Heather at Outstanding Occasions on July 6, 2011

We get asked a lot of questions about our phone service.  Usually we hear “It is so professional” or “It was really easy to reach you!”  So today, I thought we would share with you our phone service and how it has helped us.

We use RingCentral.  We have used it for several years and it has been such a positive thing for our company.  Since we have three wedding and event planners and we don’t have a central office, we needed a central line for all clients and other wedding professionals to reach us.  With RingCentral, you can choose a 1-800 number or a local number.  We chose a local number that also acts as our fax number too (although who really faxes things anymore, right!)  We pay $24.99/month and it is one of the best things we spend money on. So here are some of the great things about our phone system:

1.  Fully Customizable: You can pick the music that is played, record what is said or you can use the defaults (although I would recommend customizing it to fit your company.)

2.  Separate Lines: Heather-1, Jennifer-2, Rachel-3 and Web/Fax/Mailing Address-4

3.  Call Forwarding: We have a greeting that everyone hears when you call Outstanding Occasions and you can leave a general voicemail or you can be routed to Jennifer, Rachel or I.

4.  Business and After Hours: You can set your business hours and after hours.  We are closed on Sundays and Mondays and open 10-6 Tuesday-Friday and 10-4 Saturday.  If someone calls us on Sunday or Monday or after hours, they only have the option of leaving a message on the general voicemail or one of our direct voicemails.

5.  Notifications Via Email: Our voicemails and faxes come directly to our email.

6.  Mobile Apps: There is a ringcentral app for the iPhone, Blackberry and Android.

For those of you who do not use a virtual phone service and want to get your own asap, we want to make sure you know all of your options.  Here is another company that we have heard a lot about and actually got to meet one of the co-founders, David Hauser recently:  Grasshopper.  We haven’t tried this phone system out, but after meeting David and hearing about the company, we are sure it is as great as he is.  Not only does the system sound great (and work very similar to RingCentral), but I also love their company message:  empowering entrepreneurs.  We will be writing more about the day we met David and how he inspired us in a future blog post.  Honestly, had we known about this company prior to using RingCentral, we probably would have used it instead.  I also love the added feature of transcribed emails from Grasshopper.

So, do you use a virtual phone service?  If so, which one?  If not, what are you waiting for?

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The Business Book Challenge | June Roundup

by Heather at Outstanding Occasions on June 29, 2011

Friday is July 1st, so it is time for the June roundup for The Business Book Challenge.  You should have your June business book finished or almost finished.  Please share what book you read and what were three great points that you learned from it. Once again, we will pick a random commenter and gift a $5 Starbucks gift card.  If you are new to The Business Book Challenge, have no fear!  We will begin our next book this week for July.  Okay, wedding professionals, let’s see what you have learned and we can all learn together!

My June book:  The Thank You Ecomony by Gary Vaynerchuk

1.  The Thank You Ecomony is one where companies must revisit the “old-fashioned” way of authentically caring about clients and colleagues in the same way that our grandparents did.  Social media (i.e. blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) is the new word-of-mouth marketing.  Businesses have to adapt their marketing strategies to include social media to connect with clients  and implement a culture of caring and communication into their business.

2.  “The Thank You Ecomony works when you build community around your brand, not when you simply sell to it.”  For example, on Twitter, don’t just push your product or service.  Converse with others, share with others, become friends with others.  Authentically care!

3.  Social media:  Customers that might have once been strangers can quickly become casual acquantances and even friends. That relationship can convert a casual browser into a buyer and possibly into an advocate.

I also liked “The Biggest Mistakes Companies Make with Social Media”

1.  Using tactics instead of strategy.
2.  Using it exclusively to put out fires.
3.  Using it to brag.
4.  Using it as a press release.
5.  Exclusively retweeting instead of creating own content.
6.  Using it to push product.
7.  Expecting immediate results.

My book for July is Everyone Communicates, Few Connect by John C. Maxwell.  What is yours?

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It’s Our Client Too | Wedding Pros Working Together as a Team

by Heather at Outstanding Occasions on June 22, 2011

Working together as a team

Image by Lumaxart

 

When a client hires you, remember that they are not just YOUR wedding client, but they are also a client of a photographer, stationery designer, venue, etc. We need to all work as a team. Don’t forget that we are all trying to give the wedding couple an outstanding experience and if the wedding professionals are having power struggles, the client will not be happy.

Here are a few examples of the MY CLIENT syndrome that have been shared with us from anonymous wedding professionals:

Scenario 1:  WEDDING PLANNER MUST CONTROL EVERYTHING

Client (C) hires wedding planner (WP).  WP refers client to stationery designer (SD). WP tells SD that they should have NO contact with C and all correspondence should go through WP. WP tries to explain what client wants in terms of stationery design. SD puts together a design scheme based on WP’s requests. WP shows the designs to client (and SD still is not “allowed” to email or call them directly or meet with them in person.) C isn’t thrilled with the designs and has lost trust in SD. WP claims to have given SD direction based on C’s desires. Unfortunately, C’s desires got lost in translation to SD. Stationery process takes longer because SD has to rework the design several times to create what the client wants.

Problem: SD never got to create an experience for the client. Instead the experience was created for them by WP.

Solution: WP and SD work together as a team (and both check their egos at the door.)  SD says thank you to WP for referring SD and lets WP know that SD would like to schedule a meeting (or conference call) with WP and C to discuss stationery options.  WP, SD and C attend the meeting together.  After meeting, SD sends proposal to C and cc’s WP so that everyone is kept on the same page.  C signs agreement and sends to SD and cc’s WP.  SD emails C designs and cc’s WP.  C loves designs.  SD knew from the start what C wanted.  WP was kept in the loop on everything so that she could do her job and keep C organized and on time.  Everyone is happy.

Scenario 2:  BRIDAL SHOP CONSULTANT VS. WEDDING PLANNER

Wedding Planner (WP) takes Client (C) to bridal shop and they meet with Bridal Shop Consultant (BSC.)  BSC takes C back to try on dresses.  BSC is doing a great job with C and helping C try on amazing dresses.  BSC acts like WP is not there.  BSC never says thank you for bringing C into the store.  WP tries to give feedback on dresses.  BSC tells WP what their C wants and continues to act as though WP has no brains and started her business yesterday.  At the end of the appointment, BSC calls C over and gives the information to them without including WP.  WP and C leave the salon and C bought new dress.

Problem: BSC treated WP like a child instead of a colleague and now WP is not so sure that WP will bring more brides into visit with BSC.

Solution: Treat everyone as a client.  BSC should want to make the process for C and the WP a good one.  WP should also want the process to be great with BSC and C.  If they had both seen C as OURS instead of MINE, the whole experience would have been different.  BSC should have welcomed C and WP with open arms and then C would have found her dress, WP would have wanted to brings more clients to BSC, WP would have followed-up with a thank you and the relationship would have been one of friends instead of competitors.

Scenario 3:  VENUE DOESN’T PLAY NICE WITH THE PHOTOGRAPHER

Photographer (P) is hired to photograph the wedding of Client (C.)  P meets C at venue to discuss wedding day and invites Venue Coordinator(VC) to join them.   VC attends the meeting and immediately takes over the meeting and tells C what the photographers usually do.  C becomes worried because they want certain photos taken and VC is adamant that there is a way that works best and it is different than what P had explained.  P becomes irritated with VC and now the C is unhappy.

Problem: VC was so busy informing C about what other photographers do that VC missed the part where C hired P because they didn’t do the same stuff that other photographers do.

Solution: VC and P need to speak to one another as colleagues and not the enemy.  VC and P should work together to provide the best wedding day for C.  Maybe P should have spoken to VC before the meeting so that VC knew what was being discussed and they could have cleared up any issues prior to meeting with the C.  

So, morale to each story:

1. Respect your colleagues and don’t talk down to them (aka check your egos at the door.)

2. Work as a team instead of against each other.

3.  Remember that the client is not just YOUR client.

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